My March 28,2008 wedding with Fox Hollow, Starlight Express, Andreas Rentsch, Cakes By Jay, *****************, and many others!! UPDATED WITH MORE PRO PICS AND HONEYMOON PICS ON PAGE 3 and 4!!

I would like to start off by thanking Long Island Weddings for existing! It truly made my planning process much easier!! And I’d like to thank all you ladies for all of your wonderful ideas and input.

My wedding day was amazing! I had such a wonderful time! I think we threw a fun party!! My guests seem to have had a good time! It wasn’t a warm and sunny day, but we were still able to get a few pictures outside. It was a little cool and damp, and cloudy, but it really didn’t matter to me. I admit I was a little stressed out before we started doing pictures, but once the ceremony started, I was as cool as can be!

My favorite part of LIweddings is the reviews. I always get excited when I see there is a new review that someone has posted. I found them extremely helpful and I hope my review will in return be helpful to some of you.

I will grade my vendors on a scale of 1-10. 10 will be the highest! Enjoy and FM me if you have questions! Sorry this is super long!

Rehearsal Dinner - Davenport Press Restaurant
9
The room we used was beautiful! Very cozy. The dinner was very good! Everyone seemed to enjoy it. The only thing I noticed that could have been changed was that there was only one waitress, so it was hard for her to get drinks and take orders for 40 people. Eventually they brought someone else in, but only after we asked them to. And they set up for like 3 or 4 less people than we had, so that caused a little confusion, but really wasn’t a big deal at all. It ended up being an excellent dinner and a great location!


Makeup - Laura D’Angelo from Bobbi Brown
10
I found Laura at the Bloomingdales Bobbi Brown counter in Roosevelt Field. I was worried about makeup because I am not a flashy person and wanted to still look like me. I also didn’t want to pay for a bunch of trials. So I decided early on I would try to find someone at a makeup counter. Laura was the second person I tried and I loved how she did my makeup! It felt light and didn’t look like too much- but enough to look good in photos. I had my trial with her in August and I had a tan, so I went back in January and she did a whole other trial with me. Again I was very happy! The day of she showed up on time and ready to go. She took her time and made sure everything looked perfect. She made my eyelashes look awesome! My mom did her own makeup, but Laura added to her eyes and lightened her up a bit. It was very nice of her! I was very happy and would recommend her to anyone!


Photography -Andreas Rentsch
10
Andreas is an amazing photographer! Photography was the most important thing to us. My husband does photography and knows a lot about it. I knew I didn’t want anything too posed or touched up. We both wanted pictures that would capture the true moments of the day. We also agreed that we wanted 2 photographers. Andreas was a perfect match for us! He showed up on time the day of with his wife, who was his second photographer. They were both very nice and professional. Andreas had our proofs ready to view by the time we were back from our honeymoon. It was a great thing to come back to! We were beyond happy with the pictures!

Ceremony/Reception - Fox Hollow
Before wedding 7
Day of 9
When I first saw the Winter Garden Pavilion in a bridal magazine years ago, I said that I wanted to get married somewhere like that. Well, I made it happen! We went and looked at Fox Hollow, and knew it would be the perfect place for us to get married. We both loved that room! We also liked that there were a decent amount of accommodations in the immediate area as we were having a lot of people from out of town. And we liked that we could have our ceremony onsite as well.
The reason I gave them a 7 for before the wedding was because I felt like there were times I was not treated very well. When this happened there was usually someone to make up for it, but I don’t think it should have happened in the first place. Most of the situations happened after our meeting with Lindsay for the final details. Everyone always stresses to get things in writing, so I made up a sheet of my questions and asked her to put the answers in writing for me. Well all she did was check marks and a few answers here and there. But otherwise I thought she was very helpful at our meeting. She told me to email her or call her with questions from that point on. Well, to make a long story short, she ended up contradicting herself numerous times. She told me they would set up my centerpieces, and then she wrote me an inappropriate email saying they are not in the flower business and can’t help me with that. And then she told me I could have a specialty drink menu. Well when I brought it up again, she said I had to pay $500 to have the bar tender make mixed drinks! I finally spoke to a Manager, Eric, about these things, and he was very helpful and made everything right. Another confusion we had was right before the wedding- like days before. When we booked, we were told that the recommended officiants were included in the price of the chapel. Well, a few days before the wedding, they tell me we owe another $350 for the officiant. It was just a lack of communication on their part and caused unneeded stress. We didn’t mind paying our Reverend, as we would have had to pay someone else anyway. We were just mad that they told us one thing, and marked it as included on our contract, and then turned around and said that was a mistake and we had to pay. It just rubbed me the wrong way.

Anyway, the day of the wedding was pretty great! But it started out a little rough with the Fox Hollow. We were getting ready and were starting pictures shortly and one of the managers came to our room and spoke to my photographer. He told Andreas that we were not allowed to use the photo studio before the wedding. I had it in writing that we had access to it before my ceremony. He told my photographer that we could only use it during my cocktail hour. Which was totally pointless because we were not missing our cocktail hour. So we had to take over the Inn’s lobby because it was too cold to make everyone else go outside for pictures. So that really stressed me out and I wanted to cry at first, but my makeup lady told me not to cus it would ruin my eye makeup! LOL! Anyway, the ceremony room was absolutely stunning! I loved it! The flowers they provide for the room looked great! And they set it up beautifully! The cocktail hour food was good- but I barely ate anything during it! But everyone said it was great! My only complaint during cocktail hour was that I didn’t see one passed Hors’ Dourve (sp?). But some of my bridesmaids said they saw a couple going around. I just expected them to be more constant, and to at least offer me one. I had passed champagne and belinis upon arrival and everyone said they were great! I was supposed to have passed wine and iced tea and lemonade during cocktail hour, but never saw them. I’m not sure if they did them in the beginning or not- I never asked anyone! The little centerpieces they provided during cocktail hour looked very nice. As for our recpetion, Our Matre'D, George, really went out of his way to make sure the tables were set up right. I had DIY centerpieces and he did a great job setting them up! And they really looked amazing in that room. I think that room was made for candles, so it was important to me to have a lot of candles on the tables. The food during the reception was awesome- especially the veal chop! I highly recommend that and I barely eat veal! My Matre’D was George, and he really put in a lot of work and did an excellent job! And my attendant was Cindy, and she was very nice and also did a great job! They both really made sure everything was going smooth and looked good. Guests of mine have commented about the service being top notch. Saying they always had a drink and could always find a waiter right there when they needed one. this is great to know!

Overall I am happy with Fox Hollow and wouldn’t have changed having my reception there. I just think there were a few employees who didn’t know much about the company’s policies and were giving out wrong information. Whenever I spoke to a manager or someone higher up, they were always able to take care of the situation in a professional manner. If the hall can work out their communication problems, then they would be one of the most amazing reception halls! I just wish my planning with them had been less stressful.